They messed up when they came up with that privatization crap because I was watching everything they did.
What that means is that you have "The Girls" coming up in there, ready to set up shop and run clean up ops, but "The Boys" are not too happy having to shut down their ops.
I also think Dana was just a placeholder for Fadwa Hammoud, ya know, just in case the election is nullified, or other stuff.
This is going to be a rather bloody battle and it is going to be global.
We have an entire cast of characters waiting in the wings, absolutely unprepared to enter the world stage, right here in Detroit, but hey, what do I know?
I know I would suggest planning on an outdoor bar-be-que, invite anyone who wants to witness the Quantum Renaissance because you know what they say when it gets hot in Detroit, "They come out the woodwork."
Lansing — Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud’s claim the state may have concealed millions of Flint water crisis documents relevant to a criminal probe in the basement of a government building is "not true," a top assistant in Attorney General Dana Nessel's office argues in a new court filing.
And neither are several other related assertions, Assistant Attorney General Christina Grossi said Thursday in what she acknowledged was a "highly unusual" attempt to address multiple "misstatements" by a colleague on the other side of the department's firewall.
Hammoud last week alerted Genesee County Judge Joseph Farah to the newly discovered “trove of documents” as she requested a six-month delay in the criminal case against former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon. He is headed toward trial for involuntary manslaughter and other charges arising from an investigation of the Flint lead-contaminated water crisis.
The solicitor general also announced Monday she had fired special prosecutor Todd Flood, saying she did so after realizing legal "discovery was not fully and properly pursued from the onset of this investigation."
Nessel in January named Hammoud to lead the ongoing Flint criminal investigation through the Office of Special Counsel within the Department of Attorney General. Grossi leads the department’s State Operations Division, which handles a variety of legal issues for state agencies.
"The strength of our legal system is zealous advocacy on both sides of an issue, and my office is utilizing some of the most talented attorneys in the state to zealously represent their clients’ interests in the Flint matter," Nessel said in a statement. "This is the legal system at its best, and it shows that my Department’s conflict wall works. The State of Michigan is well served on both sides of this important issue."
The dispute within the Attorney General's Office is centered around documents and other material from the Department of Environmental Quality that had been stored in the basement of the Department of Technology, Management and Budget’s Joint Operations Center.
Hammoud requested additional time to examine the evidence, which could delay the criminal case against Lyon that began in June 2017. Whether the material was “concealed or simply overlooked,” a thorough examination “will serve the interest of justice,” Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said last week in a filing.
But the material in question had already been reviewed in accordance with procedures that Flood had agreed to, and “responsive” documents related to the Flint investigation had already been produced, Grossi said in a rare intervention notice by the Department of Attorney General.
The stored material did not consist of millions of documents, she said. Rather, it was mostly material cleared from the offices of environmental regulators Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch — who pleaded no contest to misdemeanors in 2018 as part of plea deals — after they had been put on leave.
Accompanying hard drives likely contain back-up images of computers that had already been searched, Grossi said.
The materials from Busch and Prysby mainly included training manuals, personnel files, DEQ policies and binders containing” metering and agenda notes not relevant to the Flint case, Grossi said.
In her filing last week, Hammoud claimed the evidence included a “list of names ominously titled ‘Phones/Wiped,’ along with data from at least one cell phone that (her team was) told did not exist.”
The Office of Special Counsel never provided the department with the names on that list, so it is unclear whether data from the phones in question had already been duplicated and preserved, Grossi said.
All told, Grossi outlined an extensive document discovery process and said the Department of Attorney General had produced 305,692 documents in the case consisting of more than 1,509,364 pages. Several state agencies hired private attorneys to help them respond to subpoenas and requests for information, she said.
Any “allegations of misconduct against assistant attorney generals” who were involved in the document production “are unsupported,” Grossi wrote.
The Office of Special Counsel declined direct comment on Grossi's filing, but Hammoud and Worthy issued a joint statement saying they "will address all matters relevant to our motion in court."
Private attorney Chip Chamberlain, who is defending Lyon in the criminal case, said Grossi’s filing is “entirely consistent” with his understanding of the discovery process and called Hammoud’s claims to the contrary “deeply troubling.”
“They appear designed to smear Mr. Lyon together with any number of hard-working public servants who tried to keep politics out of the whole process,” Chamberlain said.
Former Attorney General Bill Schuette, who appointed Flood to lead the investigation into the Flint water crisis, first announced charges against Lyon on June 14, 2017.
Lyon is set to go to trial in Genesee County Circuit Court on two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of misconduct in office connected to the Flint region's 2014-15 Legionnaires' disease outbreak that killed 12 people and sickened another 79 people.
In a Monday filing for Lyon, Chamberlain urged Judge Farah to reject Hammoud’s request to delay the case because of the material that had been stored in the basement of a state government building.
“The stay request is worse than meritless,” he wrote. “The motion invites the court to rescue the prosecution from its own team’s dysfunction, all at the expense of Mr. Lyon, who has been vigorously proclaiming his innocence by diligently seeking relief from the courts.”
"The irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) is
a valuable and commonlyused estate planning
tool. An ILIT can be beneficial for clients having
liquidity needs at death due to support obligations
for dependants or transfer taxes imposed on
assets held outside the ILIT." ~ HuschBlackwell, 2007
Husch Blackwell is the law firm Engler hired to audit Michigan State University.
I do not know why, but I immediately thought of the Children's Trust Fund when I saw they were from Kansas.
This was meant for me to find.
These are the schemes of the children's trusts.
They are specifically training through Continuing Education Credits for the Michigan State Bar attorney licensing, Insurance Wagering, when it comes to corporate parents.
These people are wagering on the trust fund, not the individual.
This is why they are pushing the co-optimization of abortion to be recognized as termination of parental rights.
"The guardian or conservator has an insurable interest in the life of the individual for whom the guardian or conservator was appointed."
That is why they are trying to "de-gender" everything.
This is legal trust nomenclature for foreign privateering the children's trust funds.
You can come in as a Child Placing Agency and get legal corporate guardianship, where you then go get some life insurance on the kid, paying the premiums probably under Medicaid, to take out a loan on the policy, wagering on the viability of the trust.
Now, since the administrator of the trust is called an "interested individual", you have a situation of NO-NAME, where you only know that there exists a pecuniary interest in the trust, not the individual, or in this instance, the child, and not who is running ops.
Are these foster children?
Are there other schemes for all the children of "The Poors"?
Are these Social Impact Bonds?
Is this predictive modeling crap?
Does the sun rise every morning?
But, it gets better.
So, it is now, not, illegal to wager on the death of the trust, and not the death of the child.
Then, just because I am very good at being morbid when it comes to child welfare in Michigan, I am going to go out there and say, only because Engler was up in this mix, that these law firms were taking out these ILIT policies.
This is the point I am inserting the entire termination of parental rights in the womb called "aborting birth" to expedite the paperwork for the insurance policies.
I am going to eventually have to map this out..
This is chattel law and I am going to go push the proverbial envelope and say that these people are pushing terminating parental rights as a form of civil asset forfeiture, where this pushes up equity in these corporate shape shifters who leverage the guardianship of the Medicaid cost reimbursement of dumb services which are also federally funded as human subject research projects of foreign universities to keep stealin' by taking out multiple mortgages on properties they got from other property tax and mortgage fraud schemes?
The termination of parental rights, or rather abortion, is the death of the child, where the corporate parent can cash in on the trust, and just issue a new birth certificate through a new birth called adoption?
These people have been expediting this child welfare rebranding.
Is this how all these Public Private Partnerships got leveraged with the Office of Michigan Attorney General?
It very much so looks that way to me.
Hey Bill, Smooches!
Dana Nessel had no idea of what she stepped into with these massively overlapping federal investigations, because she refused to listen to the people.
Do it very slowly, my precious ones, I want to watch and savor each and every morsel of my moments of retribution.
As the fallout from the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal lingers at Michigan State University, the Board of Trustees may pursue the path that General Motors followed to move past a massive safety recall.
Officials at the state's largest public university are considering whether to authorize an independent investigation into how Nassar's decades of molestation and assaults were allowed to occur.
Dan Kelly, vice-president, MSU Board of Trustees
The hope is that such a probe could satisfy demands for a full accounting while protecting sensitive information from public dissemination — similar to how GM resolved the crisis surrounding a faulty ignition switch that was blamed for causing at least 12 deaths.
The independent investigation is being discussed by the trustees' Committee on Audit, Risk and Compliance, chaired by board Vice Chairman Dan Kelly, who said after the last board meeting Feb. 15 that he hopes such an inquiry will occur.
"There needs to be more done in terms of public disclosures," Kelly said.
Board Chairwoman Dianne Byrum added, "There (are) multiple conversations going on about how we can assist the survivors in their healing.
"Everything is on the table right now for discussion."
Trustee Brian Mosallam, who has long called for an independent investigation, said last week that nothing is finalized but there are active discussions about the nature and scope of a possible independent investigation.
He said he has made numerous statements that an independent investigation is needed for "public consumption for a number of reasons."
In May, he wrote a statement called "New Day at MSU" that said: "We must immediately begin an independent internal review of the Larry Nassar matter to demonstrate to our courageous survivors, their families and all other MSU stakeholders (and government and regulatory authorities) that drastic voluntary remediation is better late than never."
The issue is heating up as MSU faces criticism from Nassar victims and state investigators for withholding more than 6,000 documents from the Michigan Attorney General's Office, citing attorney-client privilege. That probe has resulted in criminal charges against three former MSU officials, including ex-president Lou Anna Simon, but many say a deeper, broader inquiry is needed.
Those critics argue the AG's investigationis limited in scope and is not enough for MSU to understand what happened, to make changes and to ultimately allow victims, their families and the community to create a better culture.
"We need to look at what happened and why it happened," said Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault. "If we don’t find out those answers, it will be very difficult in looking forward."
GM, the nation's largest automaker, found itself in a similar situation five years ago, as scrutiny mounted over what the company knew and when it knew it about the defective ignition switches used in its Chevrolet Cobalt compact cars.
At the time, the automaker had known for more than a decade about the problems and faced several investigations, yet hadn't begun three recalls of the affected cars until January2014.
CEO Mary Barra, who had been on the job for two months, apologized shortly after the recalls, emphasized it had taken too long and added she had told Anton Valukas, a former U.S. attorney who was leading GM's internal review, that there would be no roadblocks or "sacred cows."
Two and a half months later, Valukas delivered an independent report that found a "pattern of incompetence and neglect" led to the delay of the recalls by nearly a decade. In response, GM fired 15 employees, disciplined five others and made major changes at the company to identify, elevate and train around safety issues.
"We failed these customers," Barra told employees during a town hall meeting in June 2014 after the report was released. "We must face up to it and learn from it. To that end, on behalf of GM, we pledge that we will use the findings and recommendations from this report as a template for strengthening our company."
Experts say an independent investigation is often the first thing an entity will do to resolve an issue and demonstrate transparency.
"It looks good to the outside world to have a third-party investigator," said Michelle Krebs, a Detroit-based executive analyst for Autotrader, a car shopping website operated by Cox Automotive. "Internally, it allows them to do it in a way that internal politics can’t get in the way. It is indeed a third party, not someone in the company who has bias."
Krebs noted that Ford Motor Co. announced last month that employee concerns prompted an outside investigation of whether incorrect computer modeling might have caused it to misstate fuel economy and emissions for government testing.
She also pointed to a 2010 third party investigation conducted as Toyota recalled millions of vehicles after reports of unintended acceleration that were suspected in the deaths of at least 89 people.
"You need to get out in front of it, fast," Krebs said. "Because then you get it over with more quickly.
Then you can get on with your business; otherwise, it’s this cloud that hangs over the company, the institution, longer than it needs to and it delays putting into practice new processes to prevent it from ever happening again."
That's exactly what MSU needs, Denhollander said. Nassar was enabled in his crimes by conduct at MSU that was not necessarily illegal, such as reporting failures, communication silos and training shortfalls, she said.
"This is a healthy step that many organizations have taken much faster than MSU," Denhollander said. "We want to know what went wrong so we can deal with it."
Many have called on Michigan State to do an independent investigation since the earliest public allegations against Nassar in September 2016. But until now, the idea has faced resistance from many university leaders.
Then-university spokesman Jason Cody addressed it in November 2017.
"As for the call for an independent investigation, the FBI and MSU Police Department conducted a joint investigation earlier this year to determine whether any university employee other than Nassar engaged in criminal conduct," Cody said. "The results of that investigation were sent to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan. We have no reason to believe that any criminal conduct was found."
More recently, former interim President John Engler addressed an independent investigation days before he was forced to resign under pressure In January, saying that such a probe had already been done by Husch Blackwell, a Kansas City law firm that examined MSU's Title IX process.
"There are some people who want to continue to investigate and inquire into lots of things," Engler said. "I wouldn't support any more. ... We're trying to get rid of lawyers and consultants now. We're trying to go back to work."
In January 2018, MSU trustees asked then-Attorney General Bill Schuette to do an investigation into the university's role in the Nassar scandal in the wake of testimony by more than 150 women about the former sports doctor's crimes. The university promised it would cooperate.
MSU handed over reams of documents, including some that had nothing to do with the Nassar investigation.
Officials at the attorney general's office, under Schuette and his successor, Dana Nessel, have alleged that MSU blocked its investigation by withholding documents under attorney-client privilege. Part of MSU's argument for doing so is that the university is still in litigation with insurance companies.
As lawyers in the Attorney General's Office went to court to have a judge review the withheld documents, Nessel said in January that it appears her office is not going to see the majority of those documents because MSU has "fought this office every step of the way."
Proponents of an independent investigation at MSU say an outside investigator could review the privileged documents to see what's in them and include them in a final report without making attorney-client discussions public.
"We want answers. All the answers," said Sterling Riethman, who was among the scores of gymnasts and other athletes assaulted by Nassar. "To get those, we need both an independent investigation and the remaining documents to be turned over to the AG’s office.
"If MSU wants to show us that they’ve truly turned a corner, the solution is simple: Engage and encourage the independent investigation we’ve been advocating for, and release the remaining documents to the AG’s office."
BRIEF SUMMARY: The bills would put in place additional protections for certain assets of wards and protected individuals, in order to prevent misuse or fraud by guardians and conservators.
FISCAL IMPACT: These bills would have a minimal fiscal impact on the judiciary system. The bills' new requirements may cause an increase in administrative workload for some courts, depending upon the number of relevant cases they handle.
THE APPARENT PROBLEM:
In recent years, several high profile stories about guardians and conservators bilking elderly or disabled individuals of their life savings have received media attention. In 1991 and 2000, several officials with a professional guardianship business, Guardian Inc., were sentenced to prison on charges of fraud and embezzlement involving hundreds of clients in Wayne County. More recently, dozens of seniors in Eaton County have been victims of guardians and conservators with a combined loss of over $3 million.
The Estates and Protected Individuals Code establishes the rules for when a guardian may be appointed to take care of an individual and when a conservator may be appointed to take care of an individual's financial affairs. A person can have both a guardian and a conservator appointed on his or her behalf. Generally speaking, a guardian is appointed when a finding is made by a court that a person is legally incapacitated—that is, unable to make informed decisions about his or her own care and custody. During the process to determine if an individual is legally incapacitated, a guardian ad litem is appointed to represent the best interests of the individual if he or she does not already have legal counsel of his or her own choosing. A person who has had a guardian assigned is referred to as a "ward" and a person who has had a conservator appointed to take care of his or her money or property is referred to as a "protected individual."
Most often, the person appointed as a guardian or conservator is a relative, such as a spouse, child, or parent, although a guardian or conservator can also be a neighbor, attorney, bank, or business that operates a service as professional guardians and/or conservators. In some cases, the petitioner for guardianship is a government worker, i.e, a social services caseworker. Current law requires certain duties of a guardian, a conservator, and a guardian ad litem (who may be an attorney, social worker, or volunteer). For instance, guardians and conservators are required to file documentation of how the ward is cared for and how the personal property of the protected individual is managed.
Discovering why abuses continue to happen despite current protections in law and how to stop those abuses has been the subject of several formal and informal task forces convened since the mid-1990s, the largest being a task force on guardianships and conservators convened by the state Supreme Court in the mid-1990s and a more recent one convened by the governor in 2005 and 2006 on elder abuse. Though both task forces compiled recommendations believed to be necessary to protect the state's vulnerable citizens, few of those recommendations have been implemented.
For example, Michigan law prohibits a conservator from selling the home of a protected individual in his or her care without prior court approval. Yet, there are no prohibitions in place preventing the conservator from opening up a line-of-credit loan on the home's equity, or other type of home equity loan that essentially strips the home of its value, and then through fraud or mismanagement, use up the proceeds. It is believed that requiring a conservator to obtain court approval before a home equity loan could be secured would give an additional layer of oversight that could stop unnecessary or intentionally fraudulent loans from being made, thus protecting the assets of the protected individual.
In light of the growing numbers of guardian and conservator appointments, and the continuing problems with foreclosures associated with refinance loans, legislation has been offered to implement several more recommendations of the task forces.
THE CONTENT OF THE BILLS:
House Bills 4619, 5192, and 6272 taken together would amend several sections of the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (EPIC) to require a guardian ad litem to ask about the amount of assets considered as "liquid assets" belonging to the individual and include an estimate of the amount in his or her report to the court; grant a court discretion under certain circumstances to order the guardian to petition for appointment of a conservator; prohibit a conservator from selling, mortgaging, or disposing of the protected individual's property without court approval; and require, with certain exceptions, a conservator to furnish a bond.
House Bill 5192 and 6272 are tie-barred to each other and to House Bill 4619 (previously reported). Consequently, the bills could not go into effect unless the bills to which they are tie-barred are also enacted into law. House Bill 4619, previously reported by the Senior Health, Security, and Retirement Committee, has passed the House and is pending Senate committee action.
House Bill 4916
House Bill 4619 would amend the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (MCL 700.5305). In addition to the current duties of a guardian ad litem (GAL) appointed for an individual alleged to be incapacitated, the bill would require a GAL to ask the individual and the petitioner for guardianship about the amount of cash and property readily convertible into cash that is in the individual's estate (liquid assets).
Under the bill, if a court determined that the total amount of cash and property readily convertible into cash exceeded the limit for administering a small estate under Section 3982 of the act, or if the court determined that financial protection was required for the ward for another reason, a court could order the guardian to petition for the appointment of a conservator or for another protective order for the ward's estate. If a conservator had not been appointed for a ward's estate, and the guardian determined that there were more liquid assets in the ward's estate than were reported by the guardian ad litem, the guardian would have to report the amount of the additional cash or property to the court.
As a part of his or her duties, a guardian ad litem must also make numerous determinations. The determinations must be included in the report the GAL prepares for the court. The bill would revise one of the required determinations. Currently, the GAL must determine whether there are one or more appropriate alternatives to the appointment of a full guardian. The code lists as alternatives the appointment of a limited guardian; appointment of a conservator or another protective order; or execution of a patient advocate designation, do-not-resuscitate declaration (DNR), or durable power of attorney. The bill would require the GAL to also determine whether one or more actions should be taken in addition to the appointment of a guardian, and would require the GAL to consider the appropriateness of at least each of the listed alternatives described above as alternatives or additional actions to the appointment of a guardian (e.g., guardian and conservator, or guardian and DNR order, etc.). In addition, in the report informing the court of the determinations, a GAL would have to include an estimate of the amount of cash and property readily convertible into cash that is in the individual’s estate.
House Bill 5192
The bill would amend the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (MCL 700.5410) to require a conservator to furnish a bond if the estate in question exceeded the small estate threshold. Specifically, a court would have to require the conservator, with some exceptions, to furnish a bond if the court determined that the value of cash and property readily convertible into cash in the estate and in the conservator's control exceeded the small estate threshold for administering a decedent's estate, adjusted under Section 1210 for the year in which the conservator was appointed. This requirement would not apply if one or more of the following applied:
·The estate contained no property readily convertible to cash and the cash was in a restricted account with a financial institution.
·The conservator had been granted trust powers under Section 4401 of the Banking Code.
·The court determined that requiring a bond would impose a financial hardship on the estate.
·The court stated on the record the reasons why a bond was not necessary.
The bill would take effect April 1, 2011.
House Bill 6272
The bill would amend the Estates and Protected Individuals Code (MCL 700.5422 and 700.5423) to specifically prohibit a conservator from mortgaging, pledging, or causing a lien to be placed on the protected individual's home without court approval. Currently, a conservator must obtain approval from the court in order to sell or otherwise dispose of the protected individual's real property (in general, land and buildings or fixtures on the land) or interest in real property. A sale or other disposal of real property or an interest in real property can only be approved if, after a hearing with notice to interested persons and consideration of evidence of the value of the property, the court determines the sale or disposal of the real property is in the protected individual's best interest. Under the bill, these provisions would also extend to a conservator's ability to mortgage, pledge, or cause a lien to be placed on the protected individual's real property or interest in real property.
A conservator would be required to record an order allowing the sale, disposal, mortgage, or pledge or placement of a lien on real property in the records of the register of deeds for the county in which the real property is located. Unless the order had been recorded or a person to whom an interest in the property was transferred had been given a copy of the order, the person would not be entitled to presume that the conservator had the power to make the transaction.
The bill would take effect April 1, 2011.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The bills are reintroductions of House Bills 5186-5188 of the 2007-2008 legislative session. Those bills were passed by the House of Representatives but failed to see Senate action. Supporters of last year’s initiative included the AARP Michigan, the Michigan Probate Judges Association, and the Michigan Probate Court Association.
ARGUMENTS:
For:
In many cases, petitions to appoint guardians for individuals are filed by people unfamiliar with the duties of guardians or conservators. Petitions are also filed by social service workers or health care workers who may not be familiar with the personal details of the individual. Thus, it often happens that an individual for whom a guardian is appointed has a substantial estate that should be under the management of a conservator. If the guardian is not astute in money management, or is corrupt, the ward's assets can easily be frittered away or stolen.
One easy way to identify those cases in which a conservator should also be appointed is to have the guardian ad litem (GAL) assigned by the court make some initial inquiries as to the amount of cash and personal or real property – that could be easily converted into cash – that is owned by the individual. The GAL process is a fairly quick assessment of the individual's situation, and many GALs are either volunteers or paid below current market for their services. Therefore, the bill would not require an exact figure, which could take days or weeks to determine. However, even a few well placed questions can identify an estate that perhaps should be under the management of a conservator.
To that end, House Bill 4196 would require the GAL to include an estimate of the individual's liquid assets in the section of his or her report to the court in which a determination of whether or not an appointment of a conservator or another protective order would be an appropriate alternative or additional action to appointment of a guardian. The bill would also establish a threshold for the size of the estate for which a court could--but would not be mandated to--require the newly appointed guardian to petition for a conservator to manage the estate. If the guardian found assets that the GAL did not know about, and therefore did not report to the court, the bill would put an onus on the guardian to report those assets. The court could then reconsider whether a conservator should be appointed.
Identifying the amount of the liquid assets up front could also alert the potential guardian that if a conservator were not appointed, it would be his or her duty to responsibly manage the ward's estate. Knowing the amount of the funds involved may also help the court in its determination as to the suitability of a particular person's appointment as guardian.
For:
House Bill 6272 would close a loophole in the law that enables a conservator to obtain a mortgage or home equity loan on the home of a protected individual (the person found to be legally incapacitated). Reportedly, there have been cases of conservators stripping homes of equity through various loan products and then either embezzling those funds or mismanaging them. Regardless, the result is that when the protected individual needs that equity to provide for his or her needs, or to pass on to an heir, it is gone. Requiring court approval should add an extra layer of protection. This is particularly important in light of the numerous mortgage products offered today and the problems that have arisen from subprime loans.
For:
House Bill 5192 would address another concern raised by the Michigan Supreme Court and Governor Granholm's task forces to end elder abuse. Under the bill, a conservator would have to furnish a bond if the estate exceeded the small estate threshold. If the conservator mismanaged or pilfered the assets, the bond would cover the loss to the protected individual. Basically, requiring a bond would provide another layer of oversight which should discourage fraud. Insurance companies providing the bonds also have the resources to aggressively go after "bad apples" and collect from those conservators the money paid out by the bond. An insurer is also apt to deny a bond to a person who has a sketchy credit history, a criminal history, or otherwise appears to be a bad risk; thus, without a bond, the person could not be appointed conservator.
So that the bond requirement would not provide hardship or be ordered unnecessarily, there would be several exceptions. For instance, if the conservator were the spouse or child of the individual, and it appeared the relative would provide proper care and management of the assets, a court would not have to require a bond, though the court would have to record the reasons why it determined the bond was unnecessary.
For:
As a package, the bills would provide a few more layers of oversight and protection for those for whom a guardian and/or conservator is appointed and would do so with minimal to no cost to the state. The measures won't cure all that ails the system, but will screen out some bad actors from being appointed guardians or conservators, will identify upfront some estates that should go into conservatorship that would be missed under the present process, and will provide a financial mechanism for protected individuals cheated by a conservator to recoup some or all of their losses.
Against:
The bills are an excellent first step in implementing some quick, low-cost fixes. However, according to an article published in AARP The Magazine entitled "Stolen Lives" in February, 2004, even professional guardians receive little training and are not required in most jurisdictions to be certified. By comparison, those certified by the National Guardianship Foundation, the certification arm of the National Guardianship Association, must adhere to a code of ethics and undergo continuing education. According to the article, "the vast majority of the (then) estimated 600,000 Americans under guardianship are receiving care from people without certification." Requiring certification of professional guardians, or even providing some minimal training and refresher courses for friends or family members appointed as guardians, could also help to protect the assets of wards from mismanagement or out and out fraud.
POSITIONS:
A representative of Elder Law of Michigan testified in support of House Bill 4619. (6-10-10)
A representative of the Michigan Advocacy Project indicated support for House Bill 4619. (6-10-10)
A representative of the Office of Services to the Aging testified in support of House Bills 5192 and 6272. (7-21-10)
The Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan (PAAM) indicated support for House Bills 5192 and 6272. (7-21-10)
A representative of the Long Term Care Ombudsman indicated support for House Bills 5192 and 6272. (7-21-10)
The Michigan Bankers Association indicated a position of neutrality on House Bill 5192.
Hey Bill! You forgot about Trump's Executive Orders to end slavery. We can address this when you get to Detroit.
Thank you, Rod, for that very kind introduction. Before I begin, I would like to thank Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein for his service. Rod Rosenstein has spent his entire career at the Department of Justice. He joined the Department through the Attorney General’s Honors Program in 1990 and has worked throughout the Department in the nearly thirty years since. Over that time, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein has served the Department with dedication and distinction. We are thankful for his service.
I also want to thank Director Richard Toscano, Assistant Director Granette Trent, and the entire Justice Management Division’s Equal Employment Opportunity staff for putting on this important event every year.
Thank you to Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School’s Junior ROTC Color Guard for the Presentation of the Colors.
And thank you to Dorothy Williams of the Civil Rights Division for that beautiful rendition of our national anthem.
I also want to thank our closing speaker, Trial Attorney Oneshia Herring of the Civil Rights Division’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section.
Thank you also for your service as Vice-Chair of Department of Justice Association of Black Attorneys.
But above all, thank you to our audience for being here to honor African-American history.
Black history is American history. You cannot tell one story without telling the other.
This year’s theme is “Black Migrations,” which is an important topic in black history as well as in the history of the entire nation.
The first Black Migration to this country was forced migration. It was the Middle Passage.
Over the course of centuries, millions of Africans were taken in chains, branded with hot irons, and put on small, overcrowded boats for a treacherous journey to this land. That journey could take weeks or even months.
In these conditions, many died before they even reached the shore. In a 1789 speech to Parliament, William Wilberforce cited an estimate that one in every eight slaves bound for Jamaica died on the Middle Passage, and that one third died soon after arrival.
Slavery was our nation’s original sin. James Madison himself recognized as much in a letter he sent decades after he helped draft a Constitution codifying it.
Writing in 1820 to his old friend the Marquis de Lafayette, Madison described the political turmoil that had resulted from the inexcusable tolerance of slavery as “the dreadful fruitfulness of the original sin of the African trade.”
It took the bloodiest war in American history and three constitutional amendments to finally end slavery and to give African-Americans the freedom to migrate where they chose.
Once slavery was finally ended, those who had been enslaved and their descendants migrated again and spread to communities all across the country. Hey Bill, precious....slavery was never abolished, nor has it ever ended. You should read the Thirteenth Amendment.
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".
For example, there were the Exodusters, the thousands of African-Americans who fled the South for the Great Plains states or for homesteads in the West.
But the best known of these migrations was, of course, the Great Migration, when millions African-Americans fled persecution in the South to places like Chicago, Detroit, or New York.
Hey Bill, what about the Great Migration of Detroit from the fake Emergency Manager, who did the fake Detroit Bankruptcy, who did the fake Automotive Industry Bailout, who did the fake Grand Bargain, who was behind the fake Detroit Land Bank Authority snatching homes through fake property tax and fake mortgage foreclosures? When people are forced to migrate based upon a highly sophisticated property fraud scheme, that is called gerrymandering.
In her award-winning book The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson writes, “during the First World War…a silent pilgrimage took its first steps…Over the course of six decades, some six million black southerners left the land of their forefathers and fanned out across the country for an uncertain existence…
Never heard of her but I know of a great case at the threshold of justice sitting in the Michigan Eastern District Court in Detroit waiting on you.
“By the time it was over, no northern or western city would be the same…In Chicago alone, the black population rocketed from [44,000] at the start of the Migration to more than one million at the end of it. By the turn of the 21stCentury, blacks made up a third of the city’s residents, with more blacks living in Chicago than in the entire state of Mississippi.”
The Great Migration changed American history not just for the migrants but for all of us. It made possible American cultural milestones like the Harlem Renaissance, Chicago blues, and Motown, just to name a few.
Hey Bill, the Great Migration also put on the books lots of arcane, anti-amalgamation laws and polices, from making lots of amalgamated babies, too. Are you going to finally be the one to address child welfare fraud, or shall I just continue without you, considering that you will be busy, busy, busy?
The migrants included the families of Americans like Richard Wright, astronaut Mae Jemison, Housing and Urban Development Secretary and neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson, and many, many more.
Today we see many African-Americans returning to the South. In the 2010 Census, a higher percentage of the African-American population lived in the South than in any Census in 50 years. I think that these are good signs that much progress has been made.
President Lincoln may have signed the emancipation proclamation more than 150 years ago, but there is a great deal of work left to do in eradicating prejudice and bringing together the people of this nation.
Much of that work falls to the Department of Justice.
Hey Bill, feel free to do that conjugal collaboration with multiple jurisdictions of law enforcement.
One of the reasons that this Department was created in the first place was to help protect the civil rights of African-Americans in the South and to fight the very same persecution that helped cause the Great Migration.
Hey Bill, #sayhisname.
That is why I pledged at my confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that one of my top priorities as Attorney General would be protecting the right to vote.
Good boy! You also pledged to Grassley to uphold his legacy in enforcing the False Claims Act.
In our present period of great political division, it is imperative that we protect every citizen’s right to vote from all persons, foreign or domestic, who seek to interfere with it.
So, when are you coming to Detroit?
I appreciate the more than 18,000 African-Americans who work at this Department—including many who serve as attorneys or as senior executives.
Hey Bill, how do you know that number is not higher? Have you implemented mandatory one-drop DNA testing?
All of them are helping to write the next chapter in black history at the Department.
Hey Bill, how about helping preserve the annals of history, instead of color coding it.
And that is certainly true of our keynote speaker.
Louis Franklin has served at the Department for more than 26 years. He started as an AUSA in the Middle District of Alabama, went into private practice, and then returned to become Criminal Chief for 16 years.
On June 15, 2017, he was nominated by President Trump to serve as United States Attorney. On September 14, 2017, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Please join me in welcoming U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin.
It seems, "The Girls" are going to have to run a full court bench press when it comes to a pending, contemporaneous inherent conflicts of interest when it comes to the Flint Prosecution because is seems this may cross jurisdictions.
This is going to be fun.
From one of my cybermermaids, who has brought forth precious pearls of wisdom for the deep, dark bowels of the Michigan Government....
And they lied in the article.....waste water from there still flows into Flint Municipal system and goes through their water treatment plant and as far as I know that doesn't take out PFAS et al. that means it has been flowing to flint since it started getting into the waste systems and over/out flows.
Hey Bill, Smooches!
Oh, wait, we have Dana Nessel and "The Girls" in the Michigan Attorney General's Office over the Flint Water prosecution.
FLINT, MI -- The most recent testing at the former Buick City site shows elevated levels of PFOA or PFOS aren’t only in storm sewers on the 400-acre property, but in sanitary sewers as well.
Four of five sampling locations tested in mid-December showed elevated levels of one -- or both -- of the compounds, adding to evidence of widespread contamination that will require further sampling and investigation of connections to the sanitary sewers.
"We have reported these results to the U.S. (Environmental Protection Agency) and (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality),” the RACER Trust says in a posting on its web site.
RACER manages the old Buick property, which was abandoned by General Motors during its bankruptcy proceedings a decade ago. The court-created trust is charged with cleaning up and selling off the real estate for redevelopment, but sales have been put on hold until the scope of PFAS contamination is better defined.
In November, RACER held community meetings to discuss its finding to date.
PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS and many other chemicals that have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries in the United States since the 1940s, according to EPA.
Although there are few regulations to stop the spread of PFAS, either from the federal or state government, Michigan’s rule for water quality specifically limiting PFOS to 12-parts per trillion -- is one of them.
RACER’s web posting says the most recent water samples were collected Dec. 17 from five locations in the sanitary sewer that flows east along Hamilton Avenue and then combines with the sanitary main from James P Cole Boulevard.
Concentrations of PFOA ranged from zero to 2,280 ng/L, and PFOS results ranged from zero to 27,580 ng/L -- nearly twice the level as the highest previous testing of groundwater in the area.
Both the groundwater and sanitary sewer tests showed high results near a former paint shop, north of the new Lear Corp. plant.
Testing for a range of per- and poly-fluorinated compounds started last year at the Buick complex, which GM fully closed in 2010.
The property is one of four sites in Genesee County that the state DEQ is investigating because of elevated levels of PFAS. Others are the shuttered Richfield and Coldwater Road landfills and Bishop Airport.
RACER officials have said none of the PFAS detected on the Buick City property is making its way to the municipal water system, which has not drawn from the Flint River since October 2015.
Previous testing showed PFAS moving through the storm sewer system into the river.
Always remember, they take a village, then plunder its most precious treasures.
Department of Justice Begins Third Distribution of Funds Recovered Through Asset Forfeiture to Compensate Victims of Bernard Madoff Fraud Scheme
The Department of Justice today announced that on Nov. 29, the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF) began its third distribution of $695.4 million in funds forfeited to the U.S. Government in connection with the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS) fraud scheme, bringing the total distributed to nearly $2 billion. These funds will be sent to over 27,000 victims across the globe, bringing their total recovery to 56.65 percent. This distribution represents the third in a series of payments that will eventually return over $4 billion to victims as compensation for losses they suffered from the collapse of the BLMIS. The MVF has received over 65,000 petitions from victims in 136 countries.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman for the Southern District of New York made the announcement.
“Bernie Madoff’s scheme devastated retirement and pension funds, charitable organizations, and thousands of individual investors spread across 49 States, the District of Columbia, and 121 other countries,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. “The payments announced today could not have happened without the prosecutors’ relentless pursuit of proceeds of Madoff’s fraud through civil forfeiture—and, as a result of their efforts and those of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, victims who would not have seen a dime in other compensation programs will now recover more than half of their losses.”
“Bernie Madoff committed history’s largest Ponzi scheme,” said U.S. Attorney Berman. “This Office prosecuted Madoff and others who helped perpetrate his fraud, and we assisted in recovering billions of dollars in proceeds from the fraud. Today’s payment of more than $690 million is this Office’s third installment in a series of distributions that represent our ongoing commitment to find relief for victims of Madoff’s heinous crimes.”
“While today’s distribution of funds is indeed significant in scope, we understand no amount of money could ever restore the damage done by Madoff as a result of his selfish behavior and unforgivable financial crimes,” said FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney, Jr. “To all of his many victims and their families, we realize this gesture may not provide the consolation necessary to remove the pain and suffering you have been brought to bear, but we are hopeful it provides some sense of relief, and we remain committed to achieve justice for all victims of inexcusable financial crimes.”
For decades, Bernard L. Madoff used his position as Chairman of BLMIS, the investment advisory business he founded in 1960, to steal billions from his clients. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies, admitting that he had turned his wealth management business into the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, benefitting himself, his family and select members of his inner circle. On June 29, 2009, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin sentenced Madoff to 150 years in prison for running the largest fraudulent scheme in history. Of the approximately $4.05 billion that will be made available to victims, approximately $2.2 billion was collected as part of the historic civil forfeiture recovery from the estate of deceased Madoff investor Jeffry Picower. An additional $1.7 billion was collected as part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. and civilly forfeited in a parallel action. The remaining funds were collected through a civil forfeiture action against investor Carl Shapiro and his family, and from civil and criminal forfeiture actions against Bernard L. Madoff, Peter B. Madoff and their co-conspirators.
The MVF’s payouts would not have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the FBI in the prosecution of these crimes and the recovery of assets supporting the forfeiture in this case. The MVF is overseen by Richard Breeden, former Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in his capacity as Special Master appointed by the Department of Justice to assist in connection with the victim remission proceedings.
More information about MVF and its compensation to victims of BLMIS is available on the MVF website at www.madoffvictimfund.com, such as eligibility criteria, process updates, and frequently asked questions. Further questions may be directed to the MVF at 866-624-3670 or info@madoffvictimfund.com.
The Central Registry is a database of human chattel for asset forfeiture for the Michigan Children's Trust Fund. You should care because you are probably on it if you hail for the population of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth).
The First Data Collection Repository of asset forfeiture
Michigan Central Registry
There are 300,000 people on Michigan's Central Registry for abuse and neglect. The database gives select entities - Child Protective Services, schools, police, courts, and employers and volunteer agencies working with children - access to a subject's background information, including alleged harm to children that does not rise to the criminal level. Those convicted of harming children go on the registry.
The Central Registry is also a database of Medicaid fraud in child welfare because it contains evidence of false claims, double billing, phantom billing, human trafficking, asset forfeiture, and a bunch of other made up crap to cover up the state's operations of trafficking tiny humans through foster care and adoption.
How do you get on the registry?
The wind blows in a different direction; you ask for help for your child; lack of health care, someone does not like the way you look, the chicken crossed the road, you are disabled, your child is disabled, lack of education, or, you could just be part of the targeted population of "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth). There are no civil rights in child welfare.
Commit a crime against a child. Or, have your parental rights to a child terminated for abuse or neglect. In other cases, a CPS worker, in consultation with a supervisor, can place someone on the registry after finding evidence of abuse or neglect. The subject can seek a review by an administrative law judge, whose ruling can be appealed to circuit court.
Wrong. You have to hail from "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) Title IV-A criteria for funding. If, in fact, someone does commit a crime, other than being poor because poverty is considered the crime of abuse and neglect for "failure to provide for the necessary needs of the child", that individual is tried, in a court of law as being innocent until proven guilty. In child welfare proceedings, you are guilty until proven innocent. As for seeking a review by an administrative law judge, there are no constitutionalities in administrative law. For example, you can be denied expunction from the Central Registry for the simple fact that you were placed on the Central Registry. Seriously, and I can prove it. Just ask Steve Yager.
"There's a checks-and-balances system in place," Rachael Wineland, Child Protective Services policy analyst, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press at her Lansing office.
Rachael Wineland is a damn lie, either that or she is just stupid and needs to be removed from her position for interfering in federal and state investigations.
Why does Michigan have the Central Registry?
Consider it as the ship's property manifest of the UCC Children's Trust Fund.
It's mandated by the state and federal government, though registries differ by state. It's intended to protect children from those whose neglect or abuse of a child did not rise to the criminal level.
There goes that legal assertion of the 13th Amendment Exception Clause. If someone committed a crime that rose to the level of an adult, there would be due process and conviction, removing the need for the database.
Assistant Attorney General Kristin Heyse said the state "has a strong interest in ensuring the safety of children and protecting children. In fact, it is well established that both the safety and the protecting of children are compelling state interests."
NOTE TO SELF: FILE AN ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE ON KRISTIN HEYSE FOR LYING AND COVERING UP KIDS IN FOSTER CARE WHO HAVE BEEN DRUGGED AS LAB RATS, RAPED, TORTURED, MURDERED, ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AND WHO HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMMITTED SUICIDE. The compelling state interest is to maximize revenue because these actions of Child Protective Services are carried out through private contracts and the parties on the Central Registry cannot afford an attorney nor will the Attorney General intervene as there is that inherent conflict of interest in having to contemporaneously prosecute and represent the privatized agency. Besides, "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) cannot afford an attorney, let alone find one competent or gutsy enough to jeopardize their legal career taking on cases as this. Kristin probably has no clue about the functions of the Foster Care Review Board.
What do critics say?
The Central Registry is a human trafficking database. It is also a foreign operation.
The registry is easy to get on, difficult to get off. The threshold to substantiate abuse or neglect - preponderance of evidence - is far less than beyond a reasonable doubt, required for a criminal conviction.
There is no due process. Period.
"It is my impression from having handled these expunction cases for years, that many people do not know about the Central Registry - this is true for the general public and those involved in the child-welfare system," said Paula Aylward, a Marshall attorney who specializes in family law.
See, you are supposed to be notified that you are on the Central Registry, but they never do. You are placed on the Central Registry immediately upon an anonymous call to CPS. Sex offenders get treated better than parents in poverty.
Some have been informed they were on the registry after being denied employment working with children. The law has changed requiring notification.
Yes, that is correct. You can be denied employment, housing, education, even your own kids. I consider it a legal verification of being an original source.
Lansing attorney Cassandra Drysdale-Crown said the registry gives CPS workers too much power.
Power? Nah. Pro forma.
"They're making a determination based on maybe an hour interview, maybe, that somebody is a substantial risk of future harm of abuse and neglect."
Interview? Some people get interviews before being placed on the Central Registry? Wow. Lucky them.
She was also critical of a computer system that assigns points to determine placement on the registry.
She is referring to SACWIS, which sucks, badly, really badly, which is why I call the Central Registry the database of Medicaid fraud in child welfare.
"What other process in our entire country can totally destroy so many fundamental liberties with an arbitrary computer program? CPS would lead you to believe that everybody on Central Registry has been found guilty of something."
They have been found guilty of being one with "The Poors" (always said with clinched teeth) due to that pesky 13th Amendment Exception. No money, no justice.
Where can you see the registry?
It is not public. Only certain organizations and employers can gain access to results by submitting a name to the state.
It is called privatization of trafficking tiny humans for the purposes of covering up a multi-billion dollar fraud scheme.
All told, Grossi outlined an extensive document discovery process and said the Department of Attorney General had produced 305,692 documents in the case consisting of more than 1,509,364 pages. Several state agencies hired private attorneys to help them respond to subpoenas and requests for information, she said.
FLINT, MI -- The most recent testing at the former Buick City site shows elevated levels of PFOA or PFOS aren’t only in storm sewers on the 400-acre property, but in sanitary sewers as well.
"There's a checks-and-balances system in place," Rachael Wineland, Child Protective Services policy analyst, told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press at her Lansing office.
